Compressed-air heater.



Patented May 6; i902.

' c. B DUNCAN.

COMPRESSED AIR HEATER.

. 'on filed 35.11.12, 1901,)

(No Model.)

length of time, short or long.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES B. DUNCAN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO JOHN C. I

HENDERSON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

COMPRESSED-AIR HEATER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 699,156, dated May 6, 1902.

Application filed January 12, 1901. $erial No. 43,024- (No model) To aZZ whom it may concern- Be it known that I, CHARLES E. DUNCAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the borough of Manhattan and State of New York, have invented certain-new and useful Improvements in Compressed Air Heaters; and I do hereby declarethe following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as Will enable others skilled in.

more gage screens or diaphragms and derived from a separate tank above the level of the compressed-air reservoir, or by a pump or other method of feeding, (if a difierence of level between the fuel-tank and the combustion-chamber at burner cannot be introduced or obtained,) the tank and chamber being conveniently connected so as to have equal pressures, such liquid fuel consisting of oils, such as petroleum or any of its bi-products, vegetable or animal oils, as Well as alcohol, &c., or, in fact, any combustible fluid which will burn in a Wick or on an incandescent bed, hot plate, or diaphragnnas well as free in a shallow pan or receptacle inclosed in-wire-gauze safety-screens. 'Without the gauze-protected burner and gauze diaphragms no internal direct heating of the compressed air could be operated with safety for any For instance, if started and under way and a sudden stop be necessary the oil coming in contact with the heated burner would produce gas, and if to an explosive amount the next ignition would wreck the chamber.

For the process described the invention consists in the improved construction, arrangement, and combination of parts hereinafter fully described and afterward specifically claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate one application of my invention and a modification thereof, Figure l is a full side elevation, partly sectional and partly diagrammatical, illustrating the application of my invention to a compressed-air motor. Fig. 2 is a detail View, partly in side elevation and partly sectional, of a slightly-modified form of some of the parts.

Wherever the same parts .occur in both figures they will be indicated by the same letters of reference.

Referring to the drawings by letters of ref= erence, A indicates a storage tank or reservoir containing compressed air, which maybe supplied by any suitable means, (not shown B, the heating-chamber; O, a connectingpipe from tank A to chamber B, provided with suitable stop-valves O and G", and D a tank or reservoir for liquid fuel, elevated above the tank A and connected thereto by a pipe E, provided with suitable valves E and E, said tank D being also provided with a filling-mouth Dand a delivering-pipe F, having valve F, and leading up through the bottom of chamber B to a burner G, located in said chamber and provided with a cap or cover G, of wire-netting, after the manner of a miners safety-lamp, to prevent the ignition of the air in the chamber B. The cham ber'B is also provided with diaphragms H, in suitable number, composed of wire-netting for. the same safety purposes, and is connected by a pipe I, having a suitable valve 1, with the cylinder of a compressed-air motor J of any suitable type. K indicates a battery or other source of electricity for supplying current through a circuit K K to an igniter of any suitable form at the burner G.

By means of the pipe Eandits yalves the pressure in tanks A and D may-be equalized at will, While the same results as to pressure in the tankA and chamber B may be ob- Fig. 2. In Fig. 1 it will be observed that the chamber 13 is separate and distinct from the other tanks or chambers, while in Fig. 2 it is shown as a part of the tank or reservoir A.

The compressed air flowing from the tank A through the pipe 0 into the chamber B and expanding therein is heated by the combustion of the liquid fuel at the burner G and thence fed through the pipe I into the cylinder of the motor J.

The heating-chamber B in Fig. 1 or B in Fig. 2 is provided with a drip-pipe M, provided with a valve on, the pipe being of sufficient length to retain any suitable amount of water formed by the combustion of the hydrogen in the fuel-oils and which is not carried ofi in a state of vapor by the superheated air, the valve at the end of the drip or drain pipe allowing the blowing out or drawing off of the water at intervals. at in Fig. 2 represents a passage leading from the storage tank or reservoir A to the heating-chamber B.

I do not claim as new the combustion or heating of compressed air and gas in all forms of gas or oil engines nor the heating of the air and gas during combustion in a combustion (internal) gas-engine, as this is the ordinary practice at the present time.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a compressed-air heater, the combination with a motor adapted to be driven by compressed air, of a compressed-air chamber, an expanding-chamber provided with an airinlet, a burner within the expanding-chamber for heating the air, and wire screens arranged in the expanding-chamber and interposed between the burner and the air-inlet, substantially as described.

2. In a compressed-air heater, the combination with an expansion-chamber of a liquidfiuid-supply pipe entering the lower portion thereof, a burner at the termination of the said pipe within the chamber, an air inlet and outlet at the upper end of the chamber, and a series of horizontally-arranged wire screens or diaphragms in the chamber interposed between the burner and the air inlet and outlet, substantially as described.

3. In acompressed-air heater, the combination With an expansion-chamber of a liquidsupply pipe entering the lower portion thereof, an outlet-pipe at the upper end of the chamber, a compressed-air-inlet pipe also at the upper end of the chamber, a burner at the termination of the liquid supply pipe within said chamber, a wire-gauze hood covering the same, and a plurality of wire-gauze diaphragms arranged in the expansion-chamber, dividing the portion of the said chamber which contains the lamp from the port-ion of the chamber having the inlet and outlet pipes for com pressed air,substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I hereunto afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES B. DUNCAN.

Witnesses:

JOHN L. FLETCHER, E. T. FENwIcK. 

